In This Life or Next
by shipnation
Summary: A Gleggie Fic


**First and probably Only Gleggie fic (be kind). Was in my feelings writing this. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

The snow fell softly and quietly across the cold rolling hills of The Hilltop Colony, in which they called home. The once vibrant green grass of the summer now lay dormant as the residents of the community busied themselves preparing for the impending snowstorm. The harvest and supplies were rationed and secured, livestock insured in their shelters. There was no way to tell, but they could get anywhere from two inches to two feet of snow this night and it was best to be prepared for the latter.

She sat peacefully at her bedroom window of The Barrington House taking in the scene of the busy town below her. It was amazing all that they were able to accomplish here and beyond. It seemed to be a pipe dream all those years ago, but now she was a witness to its reality. The sight of people new and old, living in an organized society made her proud, even if she herself never quite felt so complete. The careful creak of her bedroom door commanded her attention from her internal thoughts. Without removing her gaze from the town below she listened as the familiar footsteps drew near. He placed a fresh glass of water on the table next to the chair in which she sat.

"Junior?" She called, barely above a whisper. That young sweet voice of hers now harsh with age.

"Yeah, Ma?" He knelt beside her, his sight line now level with the side of her face.

"Where are the…" Leaning forward, a series of raucous coughs interrupted her train of thought.

Grabbing the glass of water, he held it to her. "Here." Helping bring the glass to her lips, she drank. The refreshing liquid moisturized her dry, cracked lips and throat.

After a few sips of water she rested her head back in her lounge chair and continued, her breath a bit more ragged. "Where are the babies?"

"The kids are fine." He answered, placing the glass back on the table. "Bethany is staying at Judith's for the night. She and little Lori are having a sleepover. Noah is helping Uncle Carl out at the stables."

"That's good." She coughed again, this time waving the glass of water off when he tried to offer her some more.

"You okay?" He asked.

She regarded her son for the first time since he arrived in her bedroom. She could see the sadness and worry written all over his face. It reminded her so much of his father. She slowly raised her hand to his face, wrinkled and rough from years of battle, tenderly she wiped away the lone tear that escaped from his misty eyes. "I'm good, love." She answered him. "Just tired. I want to rest a little while."

Wiping his face, he swiftly moved to her bed and grabbed one of her heavier blankets. Draping it over her, he tucked his mother in comfortably on her favorite chair and dimmed out the bedside lantern. "That good?" He inquired, fixing and smoothing the blanket some more to insure she was warm and comfortable.

"Perfect." She smiled weakly at her son. "You better get home now, Hershel." She ordered. "Before this storm gets really started."

"I'm staying." He grabbed another of the smaller blankets from his mother's bed and wrapped it around his shoulders.

 _Just like his father._ She thought to herself once again.

Hershel sat down on the floor next to his mother, head resting on her lap like he did when he was just a little boy. Mildly, she placed her cold tired hand on his head, running her fingers through his slick black hair. Closing her eyes she brushed back and forth. "Okay." She whispered. Soon drifting off to sleep.

* * *

 _"Maggie?"_

 _…_

 _"Maggie?"_

Her eyes shot open at the sound of his voice. Something was different though. Odd in the most familiar way. She was no longer in her home at The Hilltop. No longer in her favorite lounge chair in front of the window, instead she was laying down on a soft bed. One in which she had been acquainted with before. Her body no longer ached, bones no longer feeling weak and brittle. Her son, nowhere to be found. While she wasn't in her home at The Barrington House, the room was not foreign. It was her old home. Her old bedroom. The one she shared with her husband back in Alexandria. Back in another life.

"Maggie?"

Her heart beat faster at the sound of his voice calling to her again. She turned her body to find him laying beside her. Him. The one true love of her life. It was a feeling that she could never explain, to see him once again. To see him staring back at her the same way he did that last morning they woke up together. She could swear she could smell him. His invigorating scent, that smell that reminded her of nothing other than home. It did not feel like fifty years had passed since the last time she saw his face. The sting of tears burned in her eyes as she looked at him. Glenn.

"I've missed you." The only words that could escape her mouth at the moment as she continued to gape at him disbelievingly. One would expect it to feel like a mirage, like he would just up and wash away from her the moment she blinked, but it didn't. He didn't. It felt as real as ever.

"I never left." He smirked. That same smirk he would do when she said something he thought funny or foolish. Every good memory of their young but deep love came flooding back to her mind. Their morning talks, the playful banter. The emotions hitting her all at once and here he was, her Glenn lying beside her as if nothing at all had changed.

Glenn rose from the bed and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Maggie asked, sitting up nervously. The dread of him leaving her once again scared her.

He tilted his head toward the door. "Follow me."

She did so. Rising from the bed, she followed him outside of her bedroom door, fully expecting them to enter the hallway. Instead she was back at The Hilltop. Dr. Carson's office specifically.

"Why are we here?" She questioned as she looked around the empty office. The last time they were here together, she and Glenn was seeing their son for the first time through a sonagram. Dr. Carson had long since passed on, but everything was still the way he left it. Crisp and clean, the Doctor's table in the same position it was when she gave birth to her one and only son.

Glenn walked around the office, his hand tracing the edge of one of the counters, he stopped then smiled at her. "So I can show you. I never left."

It was as if someone pressed play on the movie of her life. Maggie saw herself in the very room she was standing in now. A younger, more pregnant self, that was. Sasha was by her side, holding her hand and pushing back her hair as she was in the throws of labor. Dr. Carson, calmly preparing himself, giving orders on what to do next. Maggie saw that terrified look on her own face and it was nothing compared to how scared she had been in that moment.

"You was so fearful." Glenn began, as they observed the scene play out before them. Sasha offering her words of encouragement that Maggie did not quite believe at the time. "I know you were thinking about Lori. What happened and what you had to do. Though you were more afraid for the baby and everything that could go wrong." Glenn crossed his hands over his chest, "You didn't think you could do it. Then you asked me a question." From where he stood at the cabinets he moved closer to her. "Do you remember what you asked?"

Maggie considered the vision Glenn was showing her. What at the time felt like insurmountable odds, tears streaming down her face in pain, "I said…" she started, her voice slightly cracking from emotion. "...I asked you to help me'."

It was not a loud cry for help, Sasha and Dr. Carson would not have been able to hear her. It was a silent plea to her husband. The man she looked to for her strength.

"I heard you."

The scene shifted in front of her and Glenn was a part of it now, a ghostly apparition of himself hovering over her to whisper something in her ear. The sight brought her memory back to the point that pushed her over the edge and able to deliver. At the time she just thought she was remembering words that Glenn had said from a different time, but it wasn't that. He had answered her when she needed him. Three simple words. "You got this."

She turned her attention to her husband that was standing beside her, his face so serene. "I knew you had it." He smiled. The cries of their newborn child filling the room. Maggie turned back to the scene just as it disappeared right in front of her. "Come on." He said, leading her back out the door.

* * *

They exited the Doctors office and continuing with the strange way things were going, found themselves not back in their bedroom at Alexandria, like Maggie expected, but still in The Hilltop, outside of The Barrington House more notably. No snow, no cold, just the sun beaming brightly down on the busy community. The view was something she was accustomed to. Busier than most days, the residents of Hilltop were having their end of the month flea market. Tents set up for the community to buy and trade goods with one another on a grander scale. It was the time of the month the people looked forward to the most.

Glenn walked just ahead of her toward one of the tables set up with various articles of clothing displayed across it. "I remember this." Maggie said just as the apparition of her and Hershel Jr. walked into view.

 _"Pick something."_ She had said to her son. Excitedly, the young boy scanned all the choices on the table. Shirts, pants, shoes, jackets, a plethora of merchandise to choose from. That's when he zeroed in on it. The white baseball cap with a black brim. Maggie smiled widely as she looked back at Glenn who was watching her.

"Now where do you think he got that idea? Glenn grinned vibrantly. He moved out the way so Maggie could see his apparition standing behind their son, bringing his attention to the cap.

She was unable to hold back the next wave of tears any longer. "He should know you." She lamented. "You should have been with us."

"But I was." He said softly. "I am always with you."

The tent, the market, all evaporated from around her and soon she had a front row seat to the story of her life. Like a switch of a television set back in the old world, the moments moved faster now as she watched her life before her eyes. The only difference was that this go around featured Glenn right by her side. When she took over for Gregory, dealing with the war. She questioned her leadership, to be able to run a community scared, to convince them to join in Rick's war. Glenn was by her side to get her through. He was there for Junior's marriage, standing where the best man would, proudly looking on. "For every birthday, celebration, I was there." Glenn explained as they watched the snapshots of her life forge before her. "Each time you called my name in those private moments, I heard you. I always hear you, Maggie. I will always find you." For every moment Maggie wished Glenn was there, he was.

The scenes stopped changing and they were back in front of their house in Alexandria.

Glenn turned to stand in front of her, gently grabbing her hands in his. A touch that Maggie had waited years to feel again. A touch that overwhelmed her to the core of her being. Here he was, her husband who was brutally and mercilessly taken away from her. Their lives together stolen. That void she had been living with since he left her now suddenly felt so full it overflowed. Nothing felt more real or more right than this moment.

"This is all a dream isn't it?" She asked realizing that eventually she would wake up.

Glenn pulled her closer to him, his hands now snaking her waist. "It doesn't have to be." They embraced one another for what seemed like an eternity, making up for lost time. She could never understand just how much she missed it until he held her again. "Will you stay with me?"

Maggie reluctantly withdrew herself from his embrace and gazed into his beautiful eyes. Bringing her hands to the sides of his face she brushed back the hair that had fallen there so she could see all of him. That's all she wanted to see. Him. This was the only place she wanted to be. Here. "Always."

Glenn pulled his beautiful wife back into his arms, smiled that large grin of his and placed his lips on hers. Reestablishing that seamless connection. His kiss as soft and as perfect as Maggie remembered them, maybe even better, for she never felt as serene as she did now. Glenn broke their kiss then held out his hand for hers. "Let's go home."

Grasping his hand, Maggie followed Glenn as he opened the door to their home and stepped inside. Everything was how she remembered it as they journeyed through the house. Greeting them in the kitchen, her mother Josephine stood cooking, assisted by her sister Beth, happy and as bright as ever. They both smiled, waving her way as she passed by. At the table sat Annette, her brother Shawn, Otis and Patricia all in the middle of a friendly game of poker. Maggie's heart burst with happiness as she watched her family all together again. Glenn continued to lead her out of the kitchen and to the living area. That is where she saw him, resting easy on the living chair, book in hand. There was no stopping the tears from falling now, nor did she want to.

He placed the book in his lap, grinning as he took in the sight of her. "There's my girl." He crooned.

"Hey Daddy!" Maggie ran to her father hugging him as tightly as she could. The nightmare was finally over.

* * *

Hershel Jr. had no idea how much time had passed since he fell asleep against his mother's lap, but judging by the darkness outside of the window and the significant amount of snow accumulation on the ground, it must have been a few hours. Removing the blanket from around him, he stood from the hard floor, stretching out his muscles. He turned to her.

"Mom?" He yawned, wiping the sleep from his eyes. "Mom, let's get you into the bed."

Maggie did not move though. She did not answer. It only took one closer look for him to know. She was gone. Maggie lie still in her chair where she passed during her afternoon nap with her son by her side.

Hershel viewed his mother. The woman who protected him and taught him the ways of this hard life. Who was always smiling and laughing to hide that loneliness she felt. That emptiness not even he could fill. Now as she lay in front of him her there was something different. Her expression was soft and relaxed, a countenance that he never saw her wear while she was alive, pure contentment. He knew only one thing could give her that visage of comfort. She was with his Dad.

His tears silently fell, as he leaned in and kissed the wrinkles of her forehead. Delighted with this life she gave him and knowing he will be able to greet her once again in the next.


End file.
